Apologia Pro Vita Sua

Good news! Good news!

I was in College when I read John Henry Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua -- in defense of my life, that is, if my latin still serves me well.The opus, first published in 1864, was Newman's thoughts on Orthodoxy and the Catholic faith. He was responding to the attacks made by Charles Kingsley. Kingsley wrote, "Truth, for its own sake had never been a virtue with the Roman clergy. Father Newman informs us that it need not, and on the whole ought not to be." Remember that Kingsley was an Anglican; and Newman was an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism.

The Apologia was my first encounter with his thoughts. I followed his mind in the Grammar of Assent, the Idea of a University. After college, I lost interest in his works -- for I was more preoccupied with the mundane, the secular. I got back to him only during the second half of my novitiate years. It was a good five years after graduation from College. When Jody, a fellow Jesuit, left for the next stage of our formation program, he gifted me with the Newman Reader. It was almost three years ago. I have not yet finished reading it. But just this morning, I read from John Allen of NCR that Newman is a step closer to sainthood.

And, that is good news, at least for me. Probably I have an extra reason to re-read his work.